1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, method of controlling same, image forming apparatus and computer program for forming a first image, which is a main print target, and a second image utilized in order to acquire the original data of the first image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Documents used in an office often are created by application software that has been installed in a computer. Documents that have been handed out often are copied subsequently. However, such later-generation documents produced by copying come to have an image quality inferior to that of the first-generation documents that were the original documents. If a document that has been circulated in this manner is scanned by a scanner, the scanned-in document becomes image data that is capable of being utilized in a computer again. However, since this image data will be different from the original data that was created by the application software, it will be difficult to revise some of the content.
US 2004/0150855 proposes a method of appending to a handout document with a QR code, which is a two-dimensional bar code relating to the storage destination of the original data, and scanning the QR code by a scanner to acquire the original data. Since the invention of US 2004/0150855 is capable of acquiring the original data and of printing it again, a decline in image quality can be suppressed. Further, since the data is the original data, an additional advantage is that it is comparatively easy to handle and revise the data.
However, there is room for improvement with regard to the position at which the QR code is appended on a handout document. For example, if the QR code is added in a manner overlapping an image that is the main target of printing, there is the risk that the QR code will become unrecognizable. Further, if many pages are bound together, it will be difficult for a scanner to read a QR code if the position at which the QR code is appended is close to the binding position.